We’ve been at it for half a year.

Common Measure is just over 6 months old. I’ve been thinking a lot about how I want to proceed with it.

I don’t want it to be all about me going forward: I’d like to open up space for other writers—whether that’s me commenting on the work of other authors, or other authors coming on and speaking directly to you.

Talk to me.

I’m also going to bring some other channels into the mix. First off, I’ve launched a Discord server where, if you’d like to join me, we can talk about reading and writing.

Follow this link if you’d like to join the Discord. You’ll probably have to make an account if you don’t have one yet!

You can discuss whatever you want, anonymously or not. I’ll be on there, posting regularly about what I’m reading, how I’m writing, etc.

Today, though, a couple book recos.

I’m reading / just read a couple books by Canadians and I think they’re both pretty stellar, so I’m recommending them.

(Hey the links below, if you want to buy them, are Amazon affiliate links so I could get a cut if you make a purchase through these. This would help me keep this publication free forever.)

The first, which I finished on the weekend, is The Relatives by Camilla Gibb (ad). It’s a novel about three intersecting and unconventional families. There are three protagonists, whose paths lead them across North America, Europe, and Africa. All of them have fraught relationships with parenthood and family.

Without giving too much away: one of the protagonists oversteps the professional line of social work to protect a relationship. Another rejects her ex-wife’s desire to bear a sibling for their only son. A third evades his wife’s plea for family, haunted by a child whose death he feels responsible for.

The second recommendation, which I am reading now, is Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro (ad). By Munro, I have only read Dear Life previously; I have been seriously remiss. Alice Munro is an absolutely masterful writer. Her prose is everything one could want from an author. She is able to represent human psychology in all its specificity, interiority, and reality. I am convinced that Alice Munro is one of the best writers in English, ever. This is one of her most well-known works. My copy, pictured below, is Indigo’s 25th anniversary edition print. (They have a whole collection of these 25th anniversary books out which you should definitely inspect at your local Indigo!)

Please check these books out! And please join our new Discord server! I hope we can get some conversations going there.

Lastly, if you’d like to consider publishing on Common Measure, email me.